Thursday, August 18, 2011

President Obama's Retirement

Anytime any of us works long hard
hours, gets flak from our competitors on a daily (or hourly) basis it
can conjure up thoughts of retirement. When a vacation plan gets you
grief from those saying there is too much left undone at the end of
the day ( i.e. hoping you'll keel over dead from exhaustion) you
might let the thought of retirement linger a little longer.

Some personalities thrive on the
pressure though, enjoy the challenge and find reward in the small
victories. Air traffic controllers must take some pride I imagine in
getting every plane on the ground safely, every
Police/Fire/Rescue/Military employee relishes the lives they do
manage to save and I am going out on a limb here but I suspect the
President of the United States of America has his own personal
rewards.

I give all of these people total
respect and admiration for even attempting these jobs. Agree or
disagree with their processes but you must admit the workloads are
incredible. Most of us could never, would never given the chance,
want any of these jobs. Too stressful, too much sadness, too many
people hating every breath you take. How do these personalities do it?

I am here to tell you - every one of
them frequents Tiwaka's Tiki Bar & Grill. Granted most of them
do it unconsciously and for the most part wouldn't know the place if
they stumbled up to the thatched roof koa-wood bar with a talking
parrot guarding the liquor bottles. Yet, they do so in a virtual way, as a matter of
survival. In a world fraught with stress they know how to go to
“their happy place.” They may call it the local bar, or
listening to a favorite song, or hanging with family, but it's all
the same place. A brief moment in time when they are in control of
their own happiness. It's a temporary reprieve from the chaos of the world called paradise.

I write books that take my readers to
just such internal paradises, places where their own mind can sooth
the edges from a crazy world. I love the quote, from a song
somewhere, “We all have wings, but most of us don't know why”.
Tiwaka the Parrot can show them why.

I hope that President Obama, originally
from Hawaii, finds the magic of Tiwaka's Tiki Bar & Grill when he
is freed from the clamour and divisiveness of Washington D.C., be it
2013 or 2017.